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Police Taser runaway deer

Bambi's trip downtown abruptly ended when she was drugged, Tasered and then thrown into the back of a police truck.

A doe on a tour of downtown Toronto had her jaunt abruptly end Tuesday when she was shot with a tranquilizer dart, Tasered and heaved into the back of a police truck. Unhurt, although a little dazed and confused, she was released at the Leslie Street Spit. (DARREN CALABRESE / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The doe rested beside the bus terminal on Edward St. near Bay St. (RENÉ JOHNSTON / TORONTO STAR)

By Jesse McLeanStaff Reporter

Wed., Nov. 25, 2009

Bambi's trip downtown abruptly ended when she was drugged, Tasered and then thrown into the back of a police truck.

Oh dear, where to begin?

The intrepid deer's tour of the city core – including a jaunt by Union Station and some Bay St. financial towers – finished on a small grass patch on Edward St. on Tuesday morning, where she lay behind some shrubs in the shadow of a multi-storey commercial building.

From about 7 a.m., she remained there for more than four hours as the city around her came to a standstill: A steady stream of gawkers pointed and stared, snapping pictures on cellphones. A horde of camera crews, everyone from CBC to MTV, captured the nervous creature's movements and twitches.

The whole time, a fleet of police officers stood by, several from the city's Emergency Task Force, expanding their perimeter while trying to figure out how to catch the animal.

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But the standoff ended in a matter of minutes when Graham Crawshaw, a senior veterinarian with the Toronto Zoo, shot the doe with a tranquilizer. The stunned animal jumped up but was confronted by two officers holding a net. She dashed to Chestnut St., leaping over yellow police tape, before being zapped by a police Taser.

As officers wrapped her in a net, construction workers on top of a partially built structure heckled.

"I should have just brought my bow," electrician Mike Gavros said.

A fellow worker responded: "I've already ordered the barbecue."

An hour later, the doe – still a bit unnerved from the excitement and the sedatives – was released at the Leslie Street Spit.

But officials are still wondering where the doe came from and how she managed to make it downtown.

Deer populations are increasing, especially around urban areas where there is little hunting and few natural predators, said John Almond, the Halton-Peel-Toronto areas supervisor with the Ministry of Natural Resources.

In 1993, a deer ran into a cargo plane at Pearson International Airport as the plane attempted to land.

But it's rare for deer to make it downtown. "Obviously, it made its way from Rouge Valley, Humber Valley," said police Supt. Hugh Ferguson. "How? God only knows ... GO Train, maybe."

It looks like she came for a weekend trip. Just before midnight on Friday, two women spotted a deer galloping down a sidewalk on Spadina Ave. near Fort York.

The next night, Tomash Devenishek saw a doe as he drove along Strachan Ave. near Ordnance St. The 24-year-old called police and shooed the animal off the road, following it for 30 minutes before it ran off.

The sightings were "almost certainly" of the same animal that caused Tuesday's commotion, Crawshaw said.

"Right in the core of the city. I think this is the only deer (doing that)," he said.

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